Synopses & Reviews
Synopsis
Electronic textiles (e-textiles) involves the combination of electronics and textiles to form "smart" textile products. It is an emerging technology with immense opportunities in the field of wearables fashion technology. And while there are many e-textile development platforms available on the market, this book uses the Wearic smart textile kit, a modular prototyping platform, to get you building projects and experiments easily and quickly.
This book presents the essential skills required to get started developing e-textiles. The code presented is built using MakeCode blocks, an easy-to-use visual programming language. You'll use the BBC micro: bit microcontroller for all the projects, and with few exceptions, they require no soldering and wiring. In the end, you'll be able to apply and sew electronics to wearables, garments, and fabrics in this emerging technology.
Beginning e-Textile Development presents the essential components to get you started with developing e-textiles.
What You'll Learn- Program with the BBC micro: bit
- Add lights to your wearables using LED textiles
- Use different textile sensors to measure heat, detect water, actuate attachments, and enable sense touch and pressure
- Actuate attachments on wearables with muscle activity and heartbeat
- Make chemistry-based color-changing fabrics using thermochromic pigments
- Utilize Bluetooth Low Energy to send sensor data to mobile apps and WiFi to send sensor data to the ThingSpeak IoT analytics platform service
Who This Book Is For
Beginners to the e-textile industry seeking a comprehensive toolkit. Fashion designers, Makers, engineers, scientists, and students can all benefit from this book.
Synopsis
Chapter 1. Getting StartedChapter Goal: This chapter will get you started with your Wearic Smart Textiles kit. It will also set the stage for the experiments and projects you will find in the following chapters. You will learn how to program the microcontroller using the Arduino IDE and MakeCode blocks.- Introduction to the wearable electronics- Introduction to the Wearic Smart Textiles kit- Setting up the development environment- Writing your first program to control the onboard LED
Chapter 2. Making Wearables Attractive and Visible Using LightsChapter Goal: In this chapter, you will learn how to use the Wearic LED textile to add lights to your wearables. LEDs are a beautiful way to add light to wearable tech garments. Different lighting effects make your textile more attractive and highly visible. Sometimes LEDs use as indicators. You will learn basic sewing skills with conductive threads, basic electronics, and basic programming (to create different lighting effects). The skills you gain by this chapter will help you to follow the rest of the chapters.- Learn about the LED textile in detail- Applications in fashion and other industries- Testing: finding LED polarity, Use batteries and wires to test LEDs- Sewing LEDs onto the LED textile- Snapping LED textile to the expansion board- Programming: Creating light effects (i.e: blinking both LEDs, toggle LEDs, fading)- Controlling other types of LEDs (RGB, NeoPixels, etc)
Chapter 3. Physical Controlling with ButtonsChapter Goal: In this chapter, you will learn how to use the Wearic Push-button textile to your wearables. A push-button textile consists of two soft-push buttons. By programming the microcontroller these buttons can be used to control actuators such as LEDs, heating textiles, wet textiles, etc. The skills you gain by this chapter will help you to follow the rest of the chapters.- Learn about the Push button textile- Applications in the fashion industry- Snapping Push-button textile to the expansion board- Programming: learning about different button status by controlling LEDS
Chapter 4. Staying WarmChapter Goal: In this chapter, you will learn how to use the Wearic Heating textile to keep your wearables warm. You will learn various techniques on how to program the heated textile to make different heating effects/experiences. By following this chapter the reader will able to make textiles by adding heating textiles, sensors, and LEDs (actuators).- Learn about the 'Heating textile' in detail- Alternatives/ Industrial applications- Testing: Use batteries and wires to test the heating textile- Snapping Heating textile to the expansion board- Programming: Controlling heating textile through the microcontroller- Programming: Using PWM to control the heating textile.- Programming: Using a feedback mechanism to keep the temperature at a specific level using a temperature sensor.- Programming: Putting them all together to build a heated mat with feedback LEDs.
Chapter 5. Your Second SkinChapter Goal: In this chapter, you will learn how to use the Wearic textile pressure sensor to enable your wearable touch and pressure-sensitive. By following this chapter the reader will able to make textiles by adding pressure-sensitive textiles, sensors, and actuators.- Learn about the 'Textile pressure sensor' in detail.- Alternatives / Applications in fashion tech / Applications in medical- Snapping textile pressure sensor to the expansion board.- Programming: Sensing pressure, low and hi